Wine of the Week: No food required with these cocktail wines

I was surprised recently when a restaurateur told me they were going to drop Apothic from their wine list.

In case you missed you it, Apothic entered the market a few years ago and treated the competition like Godzilla treats Tokyo. It really didn’t matter whether I loved it or hated it, Apothic blew by category killers like a Maclaren. It brought any number of drinkers into the red wine tent and, what’s more, they were willing to spend to buy the stuff. It single-handedly raised the average price consumers paid for a bottle of wine.

Other vintners were quick to follow up, and they used the time-tested strategy of price to try to pry the fanboys and fangirls away from their favourite tipple. In short, an entire category of “dry” wine was created with residual sugar of roughly 10 to 20 g/L, roughly two to four times the sweetness of traditional dry wine. It is possible that Apothic’s day in the sun is over but I have a strong feeling the category will continue to sell and sell well.

South America, the happy hunting ground for many shoppers at the $15 mark, has bent many hitherto dry labels towards the sweeter palate. If you like the idea of drinking Cabernet Sauvignon, here are three inexpensive Cabs with varying degrees of sweetness. I’ve written them up from dryer to sweetest. If you find yourself unsure of what I am talking about, I’d say spring for all three, line them up with a couple friends and work out which you like the most.

Cuma, a very reasonable and organic wine, is from the Argentinian winemaker Michel Torino. This is a very nice introductory Cabernet Sauvignon. It is quite fruity. I’d guess most of the grapes were fermented in stainless. But this doesn’t mean it is sweet. It is by far the driest of these wines, with a nice acidity and some tannins. If it were me guiding the shopping, this is the one I’d buy. I might not drink it with a steak, but if I’m having a burger with some sweet relish and maybe onions, I wouldn’t mind.

Santa Carolina Reserva is a steady seller in the Chilean aisle. Their sales have been climbing steadily in the last two years. Call me a cynic, but my guess is that’s when the sugar levels started to climb. It is still a Cabernet Sauvignon, with a vanilla, fruit and spice nose followed up by a smoky/fruity palate. It’s certainly drinkable, although I find it instantly provoked my allergies, and for some people may provoke headaches.

By far the most obviously sweet Cabernet was Kaiken, another Argentinian label. The bouquet was full of fruit and the palate is grapey and noticeably sweeter. The sugar balances the acidity and will suit the double-double crowd down to the ground. It does have some tannin, and if you want some wine to accompany your cheeseburger no matter what you put on it, this is an okay choice.

All of these wines are cocktail wines. They are perfectly content in your glass a couple of hours before dinner and after. They don’t really need food to be a decent drink. They’re loaded with polyphenols for people chasing the life-extending and enhancing properties of wine. If that describes your drinking habit, then these are wines that you may want to consider.

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